FOOOOOOOD

So today was a sick day. Daughter was home running a fever last night - caught a stomach virus that's been kicking around. Low grade fever all day. A chance for me to catch up on some rest, put my feet up (ahhh recovery).

I started the day out with another one of those run things. Holy crap, no wonder i was slow last night. I got my doors blown off at the smack down. Dropped like Major Kong on the Douglas Hook road AND I lost MINUTES on Tourletot hill road. But i was pushing to the limit legs were on fire the whole time. Lungs weren't really taxed except a few times. Austin wasn't a bit problem for a change. This morning's run showed me specifically why i was so slow. Although part of it was eating lunch before noon and not eating anything else before the ride at 5pm. Low fuel and running legs = slow GeWilli.

Did basically the same as yesterday - ran for 5-7 minutes, walked for 3-5 or so, ran for another 5-7 minutes. It isn't much but after getting back it hurt like hell to walk down stairs. Lucy is loving it though. She does okay when I'm doing the run/walk combo, but not when I run solid for 20 minutes. She's too slow...

Got the run in, and well it was nice putting the feet up a bit today.

But i got inspired to write tonight because of dinner.

I done cooked food. Shock. No not really, i cook every night just about. Yall know that.

Tonight was new. Why? Dunno. But it was sooooo good.

Not sure what I'd call it but maybe a fish stir fry. The sauce was awesome.

I used some cod, marinated in soy sauce, fish sauce, five spice, garlic, tumeric, water, red wine, black pepper, Shirachi, corn starch, ground coriander, and toasted sesame oil oh and lime juice.

So it was under an hour with a break or two. Because that's how long it takes to cook the medium grain organic brown rice (okay 45 minutes).

So the fish really was the last part. Start with 6 med size organic carrots diced into cubes, tossed in the pan with some olive and grapeseed oils and a splash of soy sauce. Once they were slightly browned and toasted I cut up one MASSIVE organic sweet potato into slightly larger dice than the carrots and once they were soft I tossed in some onions and a bit of tumeric. Once the onions were softened I added a pile of cabbage (regular old green kind) and some of the reserved marinate/sauce. Then less than a minute before pulling the veggies off the heat I tossed in some yellow summer squash. Tossed it all around and put it into a big bowl.

After that it was time to crank the heat up in the pan, added a bit more grapeseed oil (trying to get the pan hotter than the smoke point of the olive oil). Fired up half of the fish. The fish was a nice Alaskan cod (sustainable - although not local -but really tasty). First batch was popped in plain, about 3/4 of a pound chopped into 2cm cubes. Second batch was coated with generous amount of flour. The fish cooks supa fast. Once the second batch was just about cooked I added the sauce and got it nice and thickened.

Served it layered with the rice, veggies and topped with the saucy fish sprinkled with some fresh from the farmer's market organic scallion tops.

HUGE flavor. Sooooooo good.

The texture of the fish was perfect, still nice and tender. The sweet potatoes were cooked through and soft but not dissolving, the carrots nice and caramelized, and the summer squash had not turned to mush.

Saw a bit of that new show Master Chef, and I got asked: What would I make for those judges? I have no idea. And that kind of bothers me. What is my signature dish. What do i make better than anyone else? What do i make that is uniquely me?

Makes me wonder a bit. Chili? Pasta sauce? Pasta is tough because if you screw up the noodles just a tiny bit the dish can be ruined for some people. Lettuce wraps like I made last week? Those were amazing and always get devoured. My wife feels that part of why my food tastes so good is the quality of the base ingredients, and ponders if I would be given the same level to use... it is a good point. I'm picking really high quality stuff, organic, local, and not just that but very picky about each individual, not just the source. It is possible that the ingredients would be good enough, and it is also a good idea to pick something to make that isn't going to rely as much on the intensity of the flavors of the raw ingredients. Yeah so maybe I'm getting a bit too foodie technical and nuanced about a completely hypothetical and unrealistic scenario. But yeah I over think even the impossible. No big shock there.

Going to pound the pavement a bit more tomorrow morning before riding in. Gotta get those muscles and connective tissue up to a level where they aren't hindering the cycling. Won't take too long. A couple weeks at most. Yeah I should have started sooner but I'm ahead of where I was last year, esp considering the injury i was dealing with then. So we'll see what happens eh?

Too bad the Killington CX race has been canceled but that means Quad should do better, maybe even the Brockton race. But likely for me the Quad will be the opening day. Or pre-season with Catamount being opening day.

Lets get the legs there... I hope my coach learned enough from last year to tweak it for me to bring an earlier peak and get me started a bit higher level... I'm hopeful. We'll see. That or i might have to fire my coach and hire Nega-coach for next year.

heddwch
G